Image generated with the assistance of Chat GPT
Is belief Just a Coping Mechanism for the Absurdity of Life?
On the ScotRail train from Glasgow to Ayr, an older man sits reading a book titled The Devil’s Delusion: Atheism and Its Scientific Pretensions.
Across
from him, a young man glances at the cover and asks, smirking,
“Isn’t God just a coping mechanism for Christians?”
The
older man looks up and replies calmly,
“Isn’t atheism a coping mechanism too?”
The young man raises an eyebrow. “How do you mean?”
“Well,” the man says, closing his book, “If there’s no God, then nothing is ultimately right or wrong. Everything’s permissible. You can live a completely self-centred life and feel no need to answer to anyone. That's a big if, don't you think?”
The smirk fades. A thoughtful silence settles between them, as the train carries on through the low dark clouds hills and the fading light.
You see, all of creation has collapsed into emptiness,
not by its own choosing, but by God’s.
Still He placed within it a deep and abiding hope
Romans 8:20 (The Voice).
Scripture taken from The Voice™. Copyright © 2012 by Ecclesia Bible Society. Used by permission. All rights reserved.